Media with questions about Leon can call the
Okinawa Public Affairs Office at 011-81-611-745-0790. Media with
questions about Webb, White, and Williams can call the Camp Pendleton Public
Affairs Office at (760) 725-5044.
Red Mountain grad killed in IraqRebekah SandersCourtesy of the The Arizona RepublicJune 23, 2006

A Marine who was raised in the East Valley
and graduated from Red Mountain High School in 2004 died in Iraq on Tuesday.

A roadside bomb exploded while Lance Corporal
Brandon Webb, 20, was driving an SUV in Fallujah, killing him and two other
soldiers, according to his mother, Ann Christofferson.

Funeral arrangements had been set for this
weekend in Swartz Creek, Michigan, where Christofferson lives, but Marine
officials told her Thursday morning that her son's body would not be released
in time.

After the funeral next week, he will be buried
at Arlington National Cemetery.

Webb was scheduled to return home from Iraq
on August 2, 2006.

"He had always wanted to be a Marine, even
when he was a little kid," Christofferson said.

When Webb told his mom he had joined, "I was
scared to death for him, but I wanted him to know he had all of my support,"
she said.

Christofferson said she talked to her son last
week. "He was joking and laughing. But he had also seen stuff he hoped
he never had to see again."

"The only thing he hated was not being able
to sleep in a bed," she said.

Webb grew up in Tempe and attended McClintock
High School his freshman and sophomore years, where he pitched and played
first base on the baseball team. When his mother moved to Michigan, he
followed, but missed friends in Arizona so much that he returned to the
Valley for his senior year.

"We were pretty much inseparable," said Private
Marcus Otero, 20, of Mesa. Webb lived with Otero's family during senior
year. "He was the closest thing to a brother I've ever had."

Webb and his mother worked as firefighters
in Michigan after Webb graduated, but he decided to become a Marine a year
later, persuading Otero to join the military as well.

The two saw each other at Christmas last year
and were planning to spend time together in September after Webb returned
and before Otero left for his tour of duty in Iraq.

Otero and Webb remained close with their McClintock
baseball coaches, Terry and Kerry Reeder, after high school.

Webb called Kerry Reeder from Iraq a few weeks
ago, saying he wanted to move back to the Valley after the military and
help coach the team.

"He loved baseball," Reeder said.

In his history classes this semester, Reeder
used Webb as an example when discussing the conflict in Iraq and offered
the students extra credit to write Webb letters.

With the hectic pace of the end of the semester,
Reeder hadn't had time to mail them yet.

"I've got 30 letters on my desk right now,"
he said. "It gives new meaning to those letters."

He plans to give them to Christofferson when
he and his brother go to the funeral.

"He was one of those kids that didn't want
to be in the limelight, but he liked being around everybody," said Reeder,
whose brother owned a Water & Ice store where Webb worked. "He was
just a good kid."

Christofferson said the community in Swartz
Creek has been supportive, bringing food to her house, calling and dedicating
a brick for Webb at the city's proposed veteran's memorial.

Otero said Webb's death still doesn't seem
real.

"He had all kinds of things going for him.
He was almost done with Iraq. He was even figuring out what kind of car
he wanted to get when he came home," Otero said.

"The last thing he said was, 'I'm almost ready
to come home. I'll see you soon.' "

6 July 2006:

A 20-year-old Marine lance corporal from Michigan
was buried today at Arlington National Cemetery.

Brandon Webb of Swartz Creek was killed last
month when a bomb detonated under his vehicle in Iraq.

Family members say he always wanted to be a
Marine since he was a young boy.

Webb lived in Arizona for most of his life.

However, while serving as a firefighter in
Swartz Creek he decided to enlist in the Marines in May 2005.

About 30 family members and friends gathered
at the cemetery, which has more than 250-thousand grave sites.

He had served in Iraq since January and was
scheduled to return to the U-S on August 2nd.

July 7, 2006

From the time he was a young boy, Brandon Webb
wanted to be a Marine. Generations of his family had served in the Marine
Corps and Webb saw public service - as a firefighter and a Marine - as
his calling.

The 20-year-old Marine lance corporal from
Swartz Creek, Michigan, was buried Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery
after he was killed June 20,2006, when a bomb detonated under his vehicle
in the Al Anbar province of Iraq.

"He was committed to everything he got into,"
said his mother, Ann Christofferson. "He never quit anything."

Webb lived in Arizona for most of his life
and was a 2004 graduate of Red Mountain High School in Mesa, Arizona. Along
with his mother, Webb served as a firefighter in Swartz Creek, about 10
miles southwest of Flint, and decided to enlist in the Marines in May 2005.

About 30 family members and friends gathered
at the cemetery.

Under overcast skies, six Marines in dress
uniforms gently removed Webb's flag-covered casket from the hearse and
brought it to the grave site.

During a brief eulogy, Navy Chaplain Lieuetnant
Ron Nordan asked mourners to "honor the memory of this great hero." Following
his remarks, a seven-member Marine guard fired three shots and a Marine
presented Christofferson with the American flag that had covered his casket.

Young Marine Was Eager To Follow in Uncle's
PathDeath Came Just Weeks Before Scheduled ReturnBy Tara BahrampourCourtesy of the Washington PostFriday, July 7, 2006

Brandon J. Webb was good at a lot of things.

"He was an amazing student," said his older
brother, Austin W. Christofferson. "He loved baseball. He liked to pitch.
And he loved painting Warhammer figurines."

A
Marine gunnery sergeant presents a folded U.S. flag to Austin W. Christofferson,
brother of Lance Corporal. Brandon J. Webb, who
was killed June 20 along with two other soldiers from his unit in Iraq

The miniature models of game characters are
hand-painted and assembled by the player, and Webb, 20, was a whiz.

"They were really realistic," said Christofferson,
22. "He was great at it."

He was also a firefighter, a job he did with
his mother in Michigan after the family moved there from Tempe, Ariz.,
where he grew up, according to the Detroit Free Press. He took a leave
from that job last year to follow another of his passions: the Marines.

"He always wanted to be a Marine," his brother
said. "His uncle Eddie was also a Marine."

Uncle Eddie never went to war, but Webb was
sent to Iraq. The lance corporal was due to return home Aug. 2, his mother,
Ann Christofferson, told the Arizona Republic. But Webb was killed in combat
in Anbar province June 20, 2006. Two other soldiers from his unit, Private
First Class Christopher N. White, 23, of Southport, North Carolina, and
Staff Sergeant Benjamin D. Williams, 30, of Orange, Texas, also were killed
that day. The men were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment,
1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Pendleton,
California.

Corporal Jonathan Santiago, a Camp Pendleton
spokesman, said the deaths are under investigation.

At Arlington National Cemetery yesterday, the
sun beat down as mourners watched six Marines slowly lift Webb's flag-draped
coffin out of a silver-colored hearse. As the Marines held the flag aloft
over the coffin, Lieutenant Ron Nordan, cemetery chaplain, spoke of the
cemetery's history as a place to lay the nation's heroes to rest.

"Today we add another hero to the list," he
said.

Seated a few feet from the coffin and dressed
in black, Webb's mother listened and at one point dropped her face into
her hands. A few mourners dabbed at their eyes as a rifle salute was fired
and a bugler played taps.

Marcus Otero, 20, of Mesa, Arizona, told the
Republic that Webb had lived with his family during his senior year of
high school and was like a brother to him. The report said that Webb had
persuaded Otero to join the military as well, and that he will leave for
Iraq this fall; the two had planned to spend time together after Webb returned
and before Otero left.

Otero told the newspaper that Webb was ready
to come home and had even picked out the car he wanted to buy upon his
return.

Austin Christofferson said he admired his brother's
initiative.

"He led by example," he said. "He put off a
real example of how to live your life."

A
Marine Honor Guard hands off the flag that draped the coffin of Marine
Lance Corporal Brandon J. Webb,
20, of Swartz Creek, Michigan, during a funeral ceremony at Arlington National
Cemetery Thursday, July 6, 2006